CONQUEST OF THE U. S. BY SPAIN 287
agree, are not fit to come in as states, there will be con*
stant political agitation to admit them as states, for such
agitation will be fomented by any party which thinks
that it can win votes in that way. It was an enormous
blunder in statecraft to engage in a war which was sure
to bring us into this predicament.
II. It seems as if this new policy was destined to
thrust a sword into every joint in our historical and
philosophical system. Our ancestors revolted against
the colonial and navigation system, but as soon as they
got their independence, they fastened a navigation system
on themselves. The consequence is that our industry
and commerce are to-day organized under a restrictive
system which is the direct offspring of the old Spanish
restrictive system, and is based on the same ideas of
economic policy; viz., that statesmen can devise a pros-
perity policy for a country which will do more for it
than a spontaneous development of the energy of the
people and the resources of the territory would do. On
the other hand, inside of the Union we have established
the grandest experiment in absolute free trade that has
ever existed. The combination of the two is not new,
because it is just what Colbert tried in France, but it is
original here and is an interesting result of the presence
in men's minds of two opposite philosophies, the adjust-
ment of which has never yet been fought out. The
extension of our authority over these new territories
forces the inconsistency between our internal and our
external policy out of the field of philosophy into that
of practical politics. Wherever the boundary line of the
national system falls we have one rule inside of it and
another outside of it. Are the new territories to be taken
inside or to be treated as outside? If we develop this
dilemma, we shall see that it is of the first importance.